This added the total free-textbook funds channeled from the central budget to 17.28 billion yuan this year, more than doubled compared with a year earlier, the ministry said.
The country kicked off the free textbook program in the autumn term of 2007. Free text books are for the compulsory education period -- six years of primary school and three years of middle school.
In rural areas, the program can save 90 yuan for each primary school student annually and 180 yuan for a middle school student, according to the ministry.
The program had helped about 150 million rural students in the country, according to statistics from the Ministry of Education.